


Color Wheel

by dylanstrome



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 08:36:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8482729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dylanstrome/pseuds/dylanstrome
Summary: They say color is vibrant, bursting with life and happiness, and everything in between. Zach wants to experience that, to see red and green and blue and purple, the rainbow and whatever color his socks are.He's six and he bleeds black.It's not that bad, but he doesn't know any better. Everything is a different shade of black or white, or grey. Zach's given each shade a name, one of the real colors. Dark grey, almost white, is blue. It sounds like a hard color, like stormy skies and rough waves. He knows the ocean is blue, and the sky, and the check on his sneakers, and his jeans, they're blue. Grass is green, but also a lighter grey than his supposed blue. It's hard to distinguish the shades sometimes - most of the time - so maybe a few of the colors get jumbled up as others, but it doesn't matter, one day he'll know every color by heart, he'll see them, and touch them and know what they are.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I'm quite new to this fandom and the wonderful world of hockey, but I thought I would experiment on a pairing I found myself quite enjoying. 
> 
> This was written for a good friend ;) and I apologize profusely for the poor workmanship of this piece in general. It's definitely not up to par with some of my other works in other fandoms. 
> 
> I do hope, though, that you all enjoy this!

The first color you ever see is your soulmates eyes. It's kind of romantic, in a semi-sad way. Sad because one may never see color, may never hold their soulmates hand or touch their lips.

Zach fears that most, the uncertainty of his future.

~~~

He plays baseball in second grade. It's easy, he has impressive hand-eye coordination and runs pretty fast. The team celebrates their first win of the season at McDonald's where Sonny Druze, the second baseman that talks too much, teaches him to dip french fries in his milkshake.

Their friendship is a whirlwind of sleepovers and games of catch. It's practice, really, but sometimes they stop throwing to watch old tapes of the Maple Leafs last Stanley Cup win.

Hockey's cool. It's one of those sports Zach's interested in. He can't skate though, there are no rinks open and he trips over his own two feet on the daily. It's okay, though, he has baseball.

~~~

The summer that Zach turns ten is when Sonny moves to California. They spend the spring prior building a treehouse in Zach's backyard and making up excuses for why Sonny's family can't leave. None work and in August, his family pulls away from their home, a sold sign on the front lawn, and leave Michigan far behind.

They talk on the phone often at the beginning. California is hot and everyone is tan and snotty. They don't smell like sunscreen either which is definitely weird given how sunny the state is. Sonny gives up baseball for football when the school year starts, and Zach wonders if he's outgrown pee-wee, too. Sliding home isn't as fun anymore and his forehead breaks out when he wears a hat - which is completely necessary to shield the sun from his face when he's trying to watch the ball.

"I'm over it, I think." Zach says one night. He's scribbled in the margins of his math worksheet, listening to Sonny ramble on about how he ate dirt the other day because of a fourth grader.

"What?" Sonny asks.

Zach shrugs. "Baseball, yanno? I'm kind of over it." He feels weird now that he's said it aloud.

Sonny's quiet.

"I was thinking maybe basketball."

"Ew," Sonny laughs and Zach follows. He sighs after a moment and the line goes quiet. "Why don't you try hockey?"

"I can't walk let alone skate."

Sonny laughs again, and faintly, Zach can hear his mom talking in the background. "I gotta go, dude, it's time for dinner. I'll call you tomorrow?"

  
~~~

Sonny's adamant on Zach trying hockey. "Michael's friend Adam used to play in high school. He was really good." It's an idea, something to fill in his empty days now that he's dropped baseball for good.

His glove is in the basement collecting dust along with his mom's sewing machine and collection of threads.

"I want to try hockey." Zach says at breakfast one Sunday morning. His father forks a piece of egg into his mouth and side eyes his son.

"Alright."

His mother's another story. 'Hockey's dangerous', 'He'll fight', and god forbid, 'His teeth! We paid how much for braces for him to get them all knocked out?' She concedes in the end and takes Zach three towns over to the skate rink and gets him skating lessons.

He's behind. All of the kids in his class are younger than him - most better too. He stays on his feet for the most part and tries to not run into anyone.

"You were fine, sweetie." His mom says in the car. Zach stares out the window, miserable. He'd fallen on his butt more than once, and his gloves had gotten soaked. The teacher, however, Miss Schmidt, told him that he was doing good for his first day.

Zach leaves his gloves by the heat vent in the family room when he gets home and stalks off to his parents bedroom. He punches in Sonny's house number and listens to the tone.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mike, it's Zach. Is Sonny there?"

They talk for an hour, or at least Zach does. Sonny listens, doesn't get word in otherwise. Skating is hard, he trips a lot and holds the wall, and looks like a total noob!

"Don't just give up." Sonny says after Zach's finished. "You sucked at batting when you started, remember?"

He had, too. But with practice, he'd grown better. "I know."

Zach goes to lessons again two days later.

~~~

Snow is white, clean, soft and cold. Zach loves it. It doesn't smell like water does, it's just there.

He builds snowmen with the twin girls down the street and has hot cocoa at their house. Jenny is the taller of the two. Her eyes are big and framed in long lashes. Sarah is missing her front teeth. Zach wonders if he'll be missing his after a year of hockey. Maybe it's a bad idea after all.

Someone knocks their snowman down in the middle of the night.

October creeps in slowly and Zach's dad finally signs him up for hockey lessons. He already knows how to skate - sort of - which is definitely an improvement over some  
of the other kids.

The first time Zach hits a puck his fingers shake after. It's dark, black maybe, and heavy. He hits it with the stick his parents bought two weeks earlier and it slides down the ice a few feet.

"Harder," Coach Stevenson says. He's older, has thinning grey hair and a strong chin. He doesn't smile a lot and chews gum with his mouth open.

Zach skates a few feet and hits another. It's loud, the crack of his stick on the puck. It soars farther this time. Two other kids hit theirs but they don't come close to his puck.

Coach Stevenson nods, chews thoughtfully. "A little harder next time. Focus. You're doing good though, kid."

~~~

"Is Zach there?" Sonny's voice is small on the phone, like he's leaning away from it.

"Hiya, what's up?" Zach's eleven now, failing pre-calculus and now he has like actual acne. It's kind of horrible, but at least he's almost a teenager, like two and a half years out, but whatever.

"My eyes are blue." Sonny says.

Zach startles. "What?" He doesn't know the color of his own eyes yet.

"I met her today - Alex - she moved here from Texas and it was like, so cool, Zach. Her eyes are brown, but they're pretty and her skin is this soft brown - like... brown sugar."

"Brown sugar..." He doesn't know what that looks like, it's a blend of white and light grey to him.

"Leaves are green, dude." Sonny sounds almost mystified as he rambles on.

When they hang up later, Zach sits in the kitchen on the floor and plays with a string hanging from the leg of his jeans. It's just another shade he'll mix up.

~~~

The summer before Zach's freshman year is hard. Jenny kisses him at a pool party and breaks her hand twenty minutes later on the slip-and-slide. He leaves his summer reading until the last possible moment and his neighbors dog pees on his sneakers when he puts them outside to dry in the sun.

Sonny stopped calling for a while. He'd grown his hair out, long and wavy, and he'd lost some of the baby fat in his cheeks.

"I don't think I have a soulmate." Sarah says one night in late November. She's curled up in a ball on the couch in Zach's family room, feet tucked under a cushion and blanket pulled around her shoulders.

Jenny snorts and flicks through the channels. "You're telling me."

The twins are a year older, a year wiser, even. Zach has hope though, for someone with eyes that light up when they land on him, and a deafening silence when they're close.

"It'll happen." He says. Jenny snorts again - pessimist.

~~~

Freshman year he makes the ice hockey team and plays his heart out. His parents come to every game, and sometimes his grandma does too. He doesn't lose any teeth although he gets his share of black eyes and swollen lips.

They play Waterford Mott on a Tuesday. It snows the night before, enough that the schools get a two hour delay. Sarah drives them to Dunkin' Donuts before first period and parks in a puddle of slush.

"Good luck today!" Both Sarah and Jenny wish him as he trudges off towards chemistry. He'd left his bag in the car. He'll grab it during lunch and put it in the locker room.

He's nervous for this game. It's the fifth of the season and they're doing fairly well. 4-1 is probably excellent given the schools record the year prior, but Zach doesn't want to jinx it.

The day goes by quickly and with every passing hour, Zach's stomach twists more and more. He forces down a cup of soup at lunch and steal a few of Kevin Maddox's - the goalie - apple slices.

He fails his math quiz - complete with a frowny faced sticker and a note to see Dr. Harkle after class.

"Have you thought about a tutor?" She asks, glasses on the tip of her nose. Her eyes are beady, much like an owl, but her smile is warm.

He hasn't. Never really needed one either. Math isn't his strong suit, but none of the subjects are. He passes everything usually.

"If I were you, I might make plans to meet with the tutors in the library after school next Thursday, Mr. Werenski."

"I'll be sure to." Zach smiles but it's forced. He has twenty minutes to make it down to the locker room and out to the buses. Dr. Harkle smiles and shoo's him out of her classroom.

Kevin and James are hovering by the locker room doors when Zach barges through, out of breath and red in the face.

"Dude, you're so late." James drawls. He's holding Zach's bag, playful smile on his face.

~~~

They're green. Dark green to be exact. Zach doesn't know how to move. He stands, frozen on the ice, number 18 across from  
him, eyes locked and mouth agape. His jersey is dark blue for the most part with hints of a lighter shade scattered around.

The game hasn't started yet and Zach already feels out of breath.

He skates over, slowly and almost unsteady. The arena is quiet, or maybe Zach's just tuned it all out. "Your eyes are brown."

"Yours are green." Zach's voice is soft, scared. "They're green."

His name is Dylan. He's a freshman just like Zach. He's taller and his cheeks are red - always.

Waterford Mott is a better team, and Zach's a little too star struck to be paying close enough attention to the actual game at hand. Dylan doesn't fare much better.

They lose, 5-3.

"Uh," Dylan says as they shake hands. They're holding up the line but no one grumbles. "I think we should, uh, get coffee sometime?"

"Yeah." He breathes. James nudges his shoulder and Dylan's cheeks go even redder.

"Okay."

"Okay." Zach repeats.

James grumbles and Mark Stanorini says, "Okay." He's grinning though when Zach turns, sheepish.

Dylan touches Zach's hand. "Will you wait for me by the locker room?"

Kevin whistles and Zach nods. They break apart quickly, and Zach wonders how it looks from the outside. His parents are in the stands, seemingly confused, but probably fitting pieces together.

Dylan's hair is soft looking, curly maybe, and a dark brown. He has a nice smile too, and his hands are big, pale too, like they've never seen the light of day. He's quick on his skates too, agile and free. Zach can only move with such ease when he's focusing carefully.

"So," Coach Trevellis says when Zach skates to the bench. He has a knowing smile on his face. "Exciting, isn't it?"

It really is.

 

**Author's Note:**

> leave some feedback!


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